Review of Krusteaz Pumpkin Spice Supreme Muffin Mix

With early Saturday morning soccer games looming, we had to pick up a quick and easy to prepare breakfast. I had quick breads on my mind as I enjoy making them in the fall as they make the kitchen smell awesome; and they also seem heartier than firing up a pop tart or toaster strudel.  In addition, the kids were burned out on cereal and oatmeal from the school week. Our Friday night of shopping at Wal-Mart revealed Krusteaz pumpkin spice muffin mix. I enjoy a good homemade muffin/quick bread mix, but did not want to take the time late on a Friday to look up recipes. I was also uncertain if I would have all the baking essentials to make the old school muffins.  A quick bread boxed mix seemed like the quick and convenient way to satisfy the quick bread craving before the big games commenced on Saturday.

The Krusteaz package directions were pretty simple. I prepared the contents to be baked as a quick bread instead of muffins. I have come to the conclusion that muffins seems to dry out quicker than baking the batter in a small bread pan. The mixing of ingredients only took a few minutes and I placed the batter in a shallow eight inch pan. The baking time was approximately fifty minutes at 350 degrees.

 First and foremost, the baked bread did one heck of a job making my home smell good. The baking did a better job than any pumpkin or apple spice Glade freshener plug in. As far as physical appearance, the finished loaf of quick bread had a lighter color than those pumpkin breads that contained canned or real pumpkin fruit. The density of the bread was also much lighter than traditional pumpkin breads (made from canned pumpkin).

Our breakfast tasting was met with mixed results. The pumpkin quick bread came off tasty but seemed more to look and taste likes a light and airy spongy spice cake. I shouldn’t be overly critical of the flavor as pumpkin really does not maintain its own true taste, but is merely a compilation of a bunch of spices. It would have been much easier to accept the spice cake flavor as “pumpkin” if only the bread had carried forth that dense pumpkin finish that appeared to be lacking.

The price of this fifteen ounce box of Krusteaz pumpkin muffin mix was a mere $2.12, purchased at Wal-Mart. The price seemed somewhat reasonable for a light breakfast for our crew. The eight inch loaf allowed the five of us to have two decent sized slices. No one was overly hungry this early on a Saturday morning so the quantity proved to be enough for our group. I think if we would have had a later breakfast or even one more individual at that table, the quantity would have been insufficient for our group.

Overall, I rank this an average product at best. I will most likely not purchase this muffin mix again. I will actually take the time to make bread or muffins the “old fashioned way” using the Libby’s pumpkin filling and pudding mix and make extra to freeze for later dates. 

Aldi L'Oven Fresh Hot Dog Buns: A Review

It is not an exaggeration to state that our household burns through a package of hot dog buns every week. When it comes to hot dog and hamburger buns, I do not typically maintain brand allegiance as I will usually make purchases based on brand sales. I also keep in mind to purchase based on that is going into the bun. If I am preparing hot dogs that week, I will most likely buy store brand or generic. If I am preparing some quality brats, Polish, or Italian sausages from the butcher, then I am going to purchase some bakery fresh buns, or select well known commercial buns such as those made by Turano or Gonnella.

I don’t pay allegiance to generic  labels either.  My purchase selection includes the Meijer brand, the Walmart Great Value label, the target brand, and now the Aldi label; known as L’Oven Fresh.  The L’Oven Fresh hot dog buns are sold eight to a package.  I have yet to witness a L’Oven Fresh twelve pack  of buns as sold by Meijer and even some of the name brand companies. The buns are a deep brown color with see -through plastic packaging. The total package weight is twelve ounces with each bun containing 110 calories.

A package of these buns is priced at eighty nine cents. That is a tad lower than the Meijer label costing a dollar and Wonder bread buns around two dollars.  Further down the line are the Rosen’s poppy seed buns costing over three bucks; though I am known to buy those on certain occasions.

These ALDI  buns are surprisingly decent tasting and moist throughout.  The absence of dryness actually surprised me as I have purchased L’Oven fresh wheat bread in the past only to realize the bread was like cardboard and suitable only for making croutons or poultry stuffing; yes I have done that! I would rank the flavor and moistness of the L’oven fresh hot dogs buns better than the Meijer brand and as good as the two dollar Wonder bread buns (at half the price!)

Overall, I rank the l’oven fresh hot dog buns a solid buy.

Belmont Peanut Butter S’mores Premium Ice Cream: A Review

This past weekend we had to make a stop at Aldi once again to pick up a few essentials we had missed during the work week. The visit did not go without a stop at the ice cream freezer. We noticed a new flavor at Aldi known as Belmont Premium Ice Cream Peanut Butter S'mores.  S’mores ice cream? Are you kidding me? Our family is an outdoorsy group that enjoys backyard campfires accompanied with playing twenty questions and consuming lots of s’mores. The idea of combining s’more flavors with frozen peanut butter sounded genius, so we picked up a container.

The ice cream is sold in a one and a half quart paper container (like most ice cream).The ice cream had a tan or almost tea or light coffee colored appearance. Throughout the ice cream were chunks of peanut butter and chocolate. I did not spy marshmallows or graham bits in the blend. The sight of this ice  cream upon first  glance had me concerned  about whether this  would represent a true s’more.

First taste was definite confirmation of the essence of s’mores.  I picked up the chocolate and peanut butter flavor immediately. The unknown factor was the marshmallows, not really sure if they were in the ice cream blend or not; then again marshmallows do not have a very distinguishable flavor unless you toast the heck out of them on the end of a camp fire stick. The greatest success of this blend was the graham cracker flavor hidden within the actual ice cream. This concoction was a s ‘more plus pb grand slam. 

The ice cream was purchased for the low price of $2.29 per container. This is a bit lower than the competitive ice creams (Hudsonville, Edy’s, and Breyers) that go for three to four dollars at Meijer.

A half cup serving of this ice cream packs about 160 calories.  My serving portion ended up at about a cup of ice cream on a cone totaling out about 375 calories (adding in “cone” calories). That is a hefty dessert but still much lower than trips I have made to the DQ for a blizzard treat.

For those that love a good fix of peanut butter married with nostalgic flavors of campfire s‘mores, I highly recommend picking up a container of Belmont Peanut Butter S ‘mores ice cream.  Get some now as this is most likely an autumn promotional flavor that will most likely go away in a month or two.

Review of Belmont Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

As we are midway through summer, I have had my fair share of ice cream. I do not discriminate too much on brand labels of ice cream as we shop Meijer, Aldi, and occasionally Costco. Our ice cream brand range includes Hudsonville, Purple Cow (Meijer), Sundae Shoppe (Aldi), and most recently Belmont (Aldi). It was this past weekend I picked up a container of Belmont Mint Chocolate Chip.

As we are getting burned out on the traditional flavors of Vanilla, Chocolate, cookies and cream and a few others, the mint option sounded good. The Belmont mint ice cream is sold in 1.5 quart typical rectangular/”ovalish” shaped container. The green colored container with picture of mint spring is the subtle reminder that this indeed is mint ice cream, yet with healthy amounts of chocolate chips.

After grilling dinner last Saturday evening, we decided to put this dessert to the test. The taste was good. I liked the healthy amount of chocolate chips. I am always fearful some ice cream manufacturers will skimp on the chocolate. The mint flavor within the cream did not come off as too overwhelming. It was also kind of refreshing to purchase a box of mint chocolate chip ice cream that did not have a green colored tint. This 1.5 quart ice cream set us back around $2.50. A solid buy as we made four cones that evening and still had enough to probably make three more cones.

Review of Kirkland Signature Beef Dinner Franks

My latest product write up involves a Costco product purchase. We have held a Costco membership for many years since one opened up in our neighborhood about five years ago. Like Sam’s Club, warehouse club memberships are a brilliant concept as the main benefits include competitive gas prices, great bulk purchase items, and a tasty low cost food court that offers delicious pizza, frozen yogurt and quarter pounder hot dogs.

We recently purchased a package of the Kirkland Signature Beef Franks this past week at Costco. These hot dogs or “franks” are sold in the frozen foods section. There are fourteen franks to a large package. These enormous precooked franks are the same hot dogs sold in the food court.

The 3.81 pound of hot dogs cost $12.93.  That comes out to about ninety two cents per hot dog. Not too shabby for a quarter pound dog. Each frank is about the equivalent of two smaller sized Vienna style all beef hot dogs which go for approximately $5.00 for package of eight.  That comparable serving price would be sixty two cents per dog x two Vienna dogs or $1.24 for equivalent meal. The Kirkland dog is thirty two cents cheaper.

Do I consider the taste of a Kirkland frank to be better than Vienna? No. I don’t think any dog is better than a Vienna all beef dog. But the Kirkland frank is all beef and has a nice hint of garlic and other spices that give it a quality finish whether the dog is steamed, boiled, or grilled. This is a great option for outdoor grilling when someone has a taste for a large dog instead of building two separate ones. I like the Kirkland Signature Dinner Frank for my freezer. I would like these even better if Kirkland would come up with a way to package these in reseal able packaging. I rate this product a solid purchase.